Wheeler’s Memorial

Cawnpore station, Tuesday morning, 10:30. Arrived here at 11:45 last night & slept at the retiring rooms here, had breakfast at 7:30 & then a 2 hours’ drive to view, with guide. We always have a guide. I rather like Cawnpore: fine country & well cared for by our government. We first visited the “Wheelers”[1] memorial, a beautiful red X marks the well where they buried the dead. There is an inscription & a verse from Ps. 141, & near here is the well where the entrenched got their water supply, very deep it is, & natives were irrigating the grounds from it, 2 bullocks drawing the water. Next we visited the Memorial Church, a fine structure, & the organ was being tuned & we heard some fine music. Next we visited the ghat where Nana Sahib massacred the women & children on the river. Then we visited the Memorial Well,[2] over which is built a very beautiful octagonal structure & inside is a marble figure of an angel. In this well Nana threw the massacred, while many of the living threw themselves in rather than be butchered. Here Lance Corporal J Fawcett[3] KOSB.[4] No. 3668 was on guard. His detachment had been here since before Xmas. He knew a Grahame but there was 2 of the name & both yet up country, & but for the war would have been here. Nothing much to see here beyond what I’ve mentioned, & a few hours is quite enough, so now we are off to Lucknow where we are due at 1 p.m. It’s a very delightful morning, not too hot yet & air lovely.

[2:42]

Lucknow, Tuesday Feb’y 22/98, 1:30 p.m.

Arrived here from Cawnpore after a very pleasant journey. The face of the country simply repeats itself, except here & there some fine tracts of cultivation, & decidedly this side of the country is the most fertile. Natives just the same all over the route & busy with the same occupations This “Hills Imperial Hotel” occupies a pretty situation & very large, only one story, as most buildings are (Bungalos they are called). A spacious verandah runs the whole length of the face of the building & wings. We will have tiffen [sic] at 2 & have engaged a gharry & guide for 2:30 to show us round. There isn’t much new by way of temples, mosques, & tombs but now we are on historic ground, & there my interest lays here away. We plan to leave here at 8:45 in the morning for Benares arriving there at 8:18 p.m. Here it is hot now, with a sky most beautiful, not a vestige of cloud. I shall prepare for posting this part at Benares. The Consul & wife are capital company & have travelled much, & this serves as valuable experience.

[2:43]

[1] General Sir Hugh Wheeler, Commander of the British garrison at Cawnpore in 1857.  Killed by Indian Mutineers.

[2] Inserted on facing page: “See photograph of memorial (built over the historical well). It hangs on stair case landing in No. 7 Fountain Terrace, W. H’pool.”

[3] Inserted on facing page: “I gave Fawcett my card to give to Grahame when he came in contact with him & I afterwards learned Grahame had received it. Grahame is one of Hannah Teague’s sons. Fawcett knew Berwick well & had been in the depot 25th KOSB there.”

[4] King’s Own Scottish Borderers regiment, British Army.